One problem with dispensing cabinets for stacked paper products such as folded paper towels, in which one towel is withdrawn from a dispensing slot at the bottom of the cabinet is that the weight of the stack on the bottom towel at the dispensing opening can impede efficient dispensing of the towels when the cabinet is full. A solution to this problem is provided in U.S. Pat. No. 3,381,852 issued to Lehyman J. Bastian, and assigned to Scott Paper Company, the assignee of the subject invention. As disclosed at column 4, line 65 through column 6, line 19 of the Bastian Patent, the weight of the stack of paper towels on the bottommost towel is reduced by controlling the alignment of back wall 15 with the back edge 26 of the dispensing opening 25. Bastian also teaches the use of pressure release means 28 extending into the cabinet from side walls 13 and 14 which liftingly engage the end edges of towels in the stack to carry some of their weight and to partially impede their movement toward the bottom of the dispenser, thereby reducing the pressure on the bottommost towel of the stack.
A problem that has been solved by the dispensing cabinet provided by Bastian or by others occurs when the person responsible for refilling the towel cabinet overfills the cabinet to the extent that a stack of towels is compressed between the top wall and the dispensing throat at the bottom of the cabinet. In this case, the rear wall 15 and the pressure release means 28 of Bastian do not provide any effective relief of pressure on the bottommost towel at the dispensing opening. When a dispensing cabinet is in such an overpacked condition, it may be impossible to withdraw a single, whole paper towel from the cabinet. When the compressive force applied to the bottom sheet against the dispensing opening exceeds the tensile strength of the paper towel, the withdrawal force applied to the bottom sheet by a towel user results in the towel tearing before it can be withdrawn entirely from the dispensing opening. In order to relieve this pressure, it is necessary to tear and remove a number of paper towels from the dispensing cabinet before normal dispensing can occur. These torn towels either have limited use or are not used at all which results in considerable waste.
It is, therefore, one object of this invention to provide a dispensing cabinet for a stack of paper sheets having a first stack restricting length when the cabinet is open and having a second longer stack restricting length when the cabinet is closed.
It is another object of this invention to provide an improved cabinet for dispensing folded paper products such as towels or napkins from a stack in the cabinet.
Another object of this invention is to provide a dispensing cabinet for a stack of paper sheets which includes means for relieving the pressure on a stack of paper sheets that have been compressively inserted into the cabinet.
another object of this invention is to provide automatic pressure relief to a compressed stack of paper sheets that have been inserted into a dispensing cabinet.
And yet another object of this invention is to provide a dispensing cabinet that includes means for relieving the pressure on a compressed stack of paper sheets inserted into the cabinet, said pressure release means operating automatically as the cabinet is closed.